The present disclosure is generally related to gaming apparatus, and more particularly to a gaming apparatus having a configurable control panel.
Gaming units, like many controllable devices, often need to provide the capability for receiving different types of user input such as selecting among different choices at a given stage of a game and/or presenting various different sets of choices, for user selection, depending on which of multiple stages of a game have been reached. For example, many gaming units are configured to provide a main game component and a “bonus” game component in which the bonus component is not necessarily played as a part of each “round” of the main gaming component, e.g., in which the bonus game is only played in response to one or more predetermined outcomes of the main game component. In many situations, the bonus game involves user activation of user input or controls for functions which are different from functions which appear in the main game component.
Some previous approaches to design of gaming units involved including a plurality of different mechanical switches which may be activatable or usable at different times during the stage of a game. A “mechanical” switch may be a switch which is activated by touching or pressing a switch activation surface, which may cause the switch activation surface to move. As used herein, a mechanical switch, however, does not include a touch screen device in which touches of a region of, for example, a display device are detected. The variety of different types of user inputs which are typically provided in games designed to maintain user interest and entertainment has meant that a relatively large number of such mechanical switches have been provided in previous designs. In some devices, a single mechanical switch is used for two or more functions with each of the two or more functions being displayed on the button activation surface.